Pyramid Lanterns

For Burning Man 2007, my friends Stephen and Mary wanted to create some beautiful standing lanterns that would glow at night. They asked me to draw some designs for them, so I've written up how they did it as an Instructable.

The pictures below are the lanterns in various locations: In our living room (where they've now been retired, hanging from the bridge at Priceless, and out on the playa at Burning Man.

Read on to see how they made them!

Step 1 Draw Up Some Designs

Alas, this was my only involvement with the project. I sketched out some designs on pencil and paper and then scanned them in. Once digitized, I was able to clean them up somewhat for transfer to the plywood, which is on the next step.

Comments

[cfraser1]

*lit, not light.

[nagutron]

You mean power? We had a generator running nearby.

[cfraser1]

How did you keep the lanterns light overnight on the playa? I'm trying to think of ways to decorate my camp for burning man this year :)

[narckycypycu]

so beatiful...so unreal... a master piece

[skipernicus]

If you are going to do multiples of the same design, I have a suggestion: use the projector to make masonite templates. They'll be easy to handle, and easy to trace onto the plywood, instead of relying on freehand tracing.

[Aidenus]

Just wanted to say great idea!! I just made some stencils out of cardboard and I am attempting this project tomorrow!

[nagutron]

Hey, awesome. I'd love to see some pix of the result if you ever did this. You can post them right to this comment thread.

[HEMPLA]

GREAT

[otoupalik]

I love that tattoo!

[mantis25]

These remind me of the Flaming Lotus Girls sculptures from a few years back... very nice!! I want to make something similar now! I suppose I'll see these at priceless in a few weeks!

[condse19]

wow these are awesome! thanks!

[asrul]

It's very nice I will try to make one in small size

[sveveg]

This is beautiful. I don't have a projector or any type of wood-cutting tools but will certainly make one or two of these if I see those things on freecycle. Thanks for posting such a wonderful project!

[darkmuskrat]

Holy cow man, if I'm correct in assuming thats 1/2" plywood that would be insane to do only using a router(all the plunge cuts/bits/TIME!) Did he maybe use a jigsaw for some of the bigger ones?

[nagutron]

Yes, it was truly insane. I tried to convince him to use a jigsaw, but he really wanted that extra bit of precision!

[SeamusDubh]

Quite interesting. This is definitely has a lot of possibilities just in changing the size alone.

[LinuxH4x0r]

Very nice! Featured

[Thornburg]

I didn't know you could feature people. Good job by the way.